“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Panel Details

While the Star Wars Celebration panel for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” this morning saw the premiere of the film’s first trailer, it also revealed various bits of information about the film itself. Here’s a breakdown of the key quotes and details.

Director Rian Johnson says the film is still in post-production and still editing but is “very far along.”

The late Carrie Fisher reportedly help Johnson work on the script: “She is a brilliant writer, an incredible mind. I would go to her house. We would sit on her bed for hours and go through the scripts. We would have these stream of consciousness jazz poetry kinda ad lib sessions. I would just scribble on my script everything she said, and at the end of six hours, there would be like a four-word line of dialogue that was the distillation of all of that that was brilliant.”

In the new film, the loss of Starkiller base at the end of ‘The Force Awakens’ has destroyed the Republic’s central Government, throwing the galaxy into chaos. The First Order is aggressively moving to take advantage of that and are “making some big moves at the start of our film” which means things will get dire quickly.

Johnson says the film will go deeper into Rey’s story and how Rey had certain expectations as to what she might be getting from Luke, saying she learns: “…as a lot of people know, it’s difficult when you meet your heroes because it might not be what you expect.”

Actor Mark Hamill says much of Luke Skywalker’s recent past will remain a mystery: “There’s a lot of mystery about him, even within [The Last Jedi]. So you have to fill in your own backstory. I’m sure there will be comics books and video games and novels that tell the story. I shared with Rian a lot of my own things. I have to relate to things that are real in my own life to understand where Luke is at this point in his life.”

John Boyega says that Finn, recovering from his injuries at the end of ‘Force Awakens’, won’t be messing about when he returns: “It has been painful. It has been a process. I think Finn definitely stood up for himself at the end of Force Awakens and caught a bit of an injury to the back. He will be back in The Last Jedi and he’s not playing this time. In The Last Jedi, it’s a test for all the characters. Specifically for Finn he wants to find his place now. Is he gonna be part of the Resistance or is he gonna keep running from the First Order.”

Boyega also says that the bromance (or romance depending on how much you read into it), between Finn and Poe will continue: “Poe is my boy, there’s always a new adventure to go on.”

BB-8 will be the comic relief of the new films, especially in terms of physical slapstick. Johnson says: “The best advice I got going into this whole process was from one of J.J. Abrams’ editors who told me you can’t have enough BB-8. And we followed their advice. He’s the Buster Keaton of this movie. I’m excited for you guys to see what he does in this movie. It’s pretty fun.”

Kelly Marie Tran’s Resistance maintenance worker is named Rose and is reportedly the biggest new character introduced in ‘The Last Jedi’. The character doesn’t want to be a hero but is pulled into a big adventure with Finn in the film.

In a separate interview with EW, Johnson talked about the salt flats-style planet seen in the trailer saying it’s an uncharted world called ‘Crait’, one rich in minerals and so is home to several mines and an abandoned rebel base. It’s a key location in the new movie.

The entire panel can be seen below along with some behind the scenes photos shown during it: